Astronomers love clouds. Well, actually a lot of us hate clouds, but a lot of us are fascinated by meteorology, and clouds in particular. I love ‘em all, from cumulonimbus to mammatus. But there’s something about the bizarre lenticular clouds — lens-shaped beasties that form downwind from mountains.

So how could I not love this video of a gigantic lenticular that formed near Mt. Fuji in Japan?

Yegads. I have a decent understanding of these, but even I would’ve soiled myself if I had seen this one. I love the layering in it, and how perfectly shaped it is. I’ve seen a few like it (see Related Posts below) but never one as nice as this.

Now that summer has hit once again – with a vengeance here in Boulder – I’m hoping to see more. If I do I’ll be sure to snap some pix and post ‘em.

I see Fujisan has its white cap on too. It was wearing one of those when I tried to hike up it, but there was no lenticular in the wake. So we got the horizontal rain as we got close to the summit (and decided to abort as a result) but didn’t get to see a super-cool spaceship cloud. Double lose.